Ahhh… Morel mushrooms (genus Morchella)! I inherited my love of them from both sides of the family. If you haven’t had a chance to try them, you don’t know what you’re missing!! Part of the fun was hunting for them and there’s nothing that compares to a fresh batch of them fried! Not being able to go to our old stomping grounds in Southern Indiana was disappointing in more ways than one… I greatly missed seeing family, spring flowers and the chance to find some of these delicacies. I remember tromping through the woods and coming back with buckets full when I was little. (You saw my post about some of our finds in previous years HERE.) When some of my cousins posted and sent pics of their finds this year (one was as big as my cousins’ hand!), I said I was extra jealous. Imagine my surprise and delight when a few days later a care package arrived with a mess of dried morel mushrooms!!
This was going to be an adventure… We’d never tried them dried before. After doing some research on-line, we found out it was easy to rehydrate them… just cover them in water, wine or broth at room temperature, so as not to make them tough and soak them 15-20 minutes or more. We chose to use some beef ‘Better Than Bouillon’ broth. Stir them a couple of times so any leftover debris in the crevices can come out. When they’ve plumped out and are soft and pliable, no longer brittle, drain them in a colander. (You can run the broth through a coffee filter to remove any sediment and use it as a delicious base for soups, sauces, etc.)
Now you continue just as with fresh picked mushrooms… We like them rolled in a pan of flour (we didn’t add salt since they were soaked in bouillon) and then fried in oil (with a tablespoon or so of butter added both for flavor and to keep down the smoke).
The little ones quickly became crunchy chips, and the larger ones were the next best thing to eating them freshly picked and fried. Sooooo good!!! Nom-nom-nom!! We were extatic!! What a wonderful reminder of home!! Thanks cuz!!
I sent them this card with “Thanks so mush!” written inside:
Materials used:
- Power Poppy Wild Mushrooms stamp set
- Spellbinders Annabelle’s Trousseau die from the Chantilly Paper Lace collection
- Core’dinations cardstock: white, purple, kraft
- Tsukineko Memento dye ink: Rich Cocoa
- Copic Markers: B02; C1; E31, 33, 51G02, 82; Y000, 02, 13; YG17, V04, 06
- Pebbles, Inc. Pearlescent Chalks – jewel tones
- Misc. adhesives
Thank you all so mush for stopping by today!
-D.Ann
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D.Ann's Crafting Whims 